What's the deal with Trutanich's personnel file?

Last week after City Attorney and DA candidate Carmen Trutanich was exposed for being less heroic than he'd like you to believe regarding a street encounter with gangs, his people accused the District Attorney's office of playing politics with his old employment file. Trutanich was a prosecutor in the office before turning pro as a politician. His complaint to the state AG alleged "suspicious political activity" by the DA's office, which gets your attention because the office is run by rival andidate Jackie Lacey.

Now comes the revelation by the LA Weekly's Gene Maddaus that Trutanich's campaign consultants knew as long ago as 2008 that his personnel file was missing — because they asked for it. They hired VR Research in Oakland to find out everything they could about Trutanich so the campaign could be ready for any attacks. The 100-page "opposition research" report noted then that the DA's office said it could not produce a Trutanich personnel file. At the time, Maddaus notes, District Attorney Steve Cooley was a big supporter of Trutanich so there's no evidence that politics made the file vanish. Now, of course, Cooley is backing Lacey and apparently has concluded that Trutanich isn't even up to the job of city attorney, let alone DA.

Trutanich's people dispute that the 2008 report contradicts them now.

Trutanich in the dunk tank